HIV-positive player kicked off Kissimmee rec basketball team

A St. Cloud man was kicked out of a Kissimmee Parks and Recreation basketball game this week because he is HIV-positive.

Dakota Basinger, 21, had been playing league basketball all season for Florida Dream Sports, a league sponsored by the city of Kissimmee. But four minutes into the second half of the team's playoff game on Sunday, the referee blew the whistle.

"He called a timeout, which was rare," Basinger said. "He made both teams go to their benches."

Basinger said a city employee called him into a room and asked Basinger if he was HIV positive. Basinger, who was diagnosed a week ago and had posted the information on his Facebook page, said he was. Then, Basinger said, the employee told him that he would need to stop playing – for good.

"I feel humiliated and discriminated against," said Basinger, a rap artist who performs locally. "I felt horrible walking out of that gym."

On Tuesday, a city spokeswoman said in a statement that a part-time city employee "acted independently and without supervisor approval" when he removed Basinger from the game.

"The city has taken corrective action to ensure this does not happen in the future," said Arin Thrower, spokeswoman for the city, adding that "as of right now," the employee still works for the city.Basinger will be allowed to play in the league again when it starts back up, Thrower said.

Basinger's mother, Lisa, was at the game and went with her son when the employee called him into a room to say he couldn't play.

"I couldn't believe it," said the outraged mother. "I explained to them that they needed to educate themselves on HIV and that you cannot transmit HIV through spit or casual contact."

Saliva and sweat do not transmit HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV can be spread by blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk.

"These fluids must come in contact with a mucous membrane or damaged tissue or be directly injected into the bloodstream from a needle for transmission to possibly occur," according to the CDC.

"Contact between broken skin, wounds, or mucous membranes and HIV-infected blood" may also spread the virus, but such reports are "extremely rare," said the CDC.

In the United States, HIV is most commonly spread by having unprotected sex and from sharing needles to inject drugs, said the CDC. Basinger said he contracted HIV, a viral infection that is the precursor to AIDS, by having unprotected sex with another man.

Basinger's teammate Gustavo Delamaza, 20, of St. Cloud knew about Basinger's diagnosis but said that playing basketball with him "didn't really bother me at all. You can't catch HIV by playing ball. It's not contagious that way."

Basinger's mother said she is angry society still treats people with HIV this way.

"He's going through a lot, having just been diagnosed," Lisa Basinger said." My wish is that everybody would become educated about the facts and myths of HIV."